1. Technical Field
The subject invention relates generally to the field of hand carts, dollies, and ladders and, more particularly, to a novel multi-purpose, compact, lightweight and combination ladder/cart assembly.
2. Description of Related Art
Ladders are commonly used for a variety of applications and are generally configured as one of two types: a folding step ladder, which is self supporting, or a straight extension ladder, which is typically leaned against a wall or some other structure for support. Ladders which are constructed so that they may be used as both step ladders and as straight extension ladders have long been known in the art. It has also been known to form such multi-purpose ladders with wheels so that the ladders could be converted into a type of a wheeled, load-carrying device, such as a hand truck or dolly.
There are certain deficiencies associated with many of such prior combination ladder/cart devices that are presented in attempting to provide so many different functionalities. For instance, the existence of wheels on these devices, necessary for cart usage or hand truck usage, present an added difficulty in providing stability for the device in its usage as a ladder. When using the device as a ladder, the wheels need to be removed or moved out of the way to prevent the ladder from rolling. If the wheels are simply made very small so as not to interfere with the use of the device as a ladder, then the functionality of the device as a cart can be drastically diminished.